Many people enjoy swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving. Being underwater and near the water provides many people relaxation and physical activity. Many people who enjoy swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving have also begun to use underwater and water propulsion units for moving a person faster through the water than if they were swimming, scuba diving or snorkeling using only human power. However much of the prior art underwater propulsion units have many disadvantages.
First, many propulsion vehicles have objects in front of the path of the blades of the propeller that substantially interrupt the flow of water to the propeller thereby decreasing the efficiency of the motor. For example, United States Patent Application Serial No. 2010/0212571 assigned to Mayhem UK Limited (“Mayhem”) teaches a handheld propulsion unit with the motor located within a housing outside of a channel and a belt and housing in front of the channel allowing the drive produced by the motor to be transferred so that a propeller located within the channel may rotate. When the flow of water to the propeller is obstructed, the efficiency of the motor is greatly decreased. Thus, the drive transfer assembly and drive transfer casing or housing disclosed by Mayhem is very inefficient, noisy, heavy and as a result not cost effective.
Second, other propulsion units include gearing or gears that also decrease the efficiency of the motor. These types of units requiring gears are the result of having to properly fully encase and waterproof the motor from being exposed to water and other types of impurities. The units that require gears decrease the efficiency of the motor. In some embodiments, such as taught by United States Patent Application Serial Number 2010/0212571 to White et al. (“White reference”), the efficiency of the motor is decreased because of the gearing. The propulsion unit taught by the White reference includes gearing that decreases the efficiency of the motor. Additionally, propulsion unit taught by the White reference has a large housing encasing the gears in addition to the ribbing that interrupts the flow of water to the propeller which also decreases the efficiency of the propulsion unit.
As a result, there exists a need for improvements over the prior art a more efficient propulsion unit for use by divers, swimmers and snorkelers.